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Why You Need To See The Big Short

The Big Short is not The Wolf of Wall Street ripoff you feared it would be.

To take on a film about how wall street, the banks, and our obliviousness is something that’s far from the light hearted endeavor you’d expect from the director of Step Brothers.

Few films come out a year that actually has something “important” to say about the world we live in.

I know films about love, sadness, passion, etc come out each year that knock us off our feet, but there hasn’t been a good film in a while about the greedy and downright ignorant society we live in.

It’s nice to be optimistic but it’s refreshing to see a film that didn’t hold back by showing how greed derailed America and other countries.

This is a film that should make you angry. It should make you make you question how we were all so blind to what was going on. We like to think we are smarter than we are, but that’s not true.

We drank the American Dream and didn’t think about the consequences. Adam McKay was brave enough to show us the truth, albeit in a way we weren’t expecting.

Although it has a high score on Rotten Tomatoes, I’ve heard nothing but “meh” to downright awful things about this film, which isn’t fair.

If this had been made by a new filmmaker or an indie filmmaker, I guarantee you “critics” against this film would’ve been far kinder to it.

This is Adam McKay working on another level.

The Big Short is informative, chaotic, bold, mainstream, and has one of the best ensembles of the year.

He shows the people that betted against the banks and betted against the American economy. This is an intense endeavor, told through humor and a-no-holds barred approach.

Christian Bale is eccentric as ever as a man determined to show that he’s right about an impending crisis and Brad Pitt is the voice of reason that shows two young men the ropes of how to be the best at credit default swaps.

Ryan Gosling looks like he’s having the most fun playing against type and looking like a American Psycho knockoff. I honestly don’t remember the last time I saw him having this much fun.

Steve Carrell’s character starts out as very annoying but ends up being our sympathetic center. It’s truly good stuff.

It might sound like they are all greedy, but they are actually the good guys in this tale that has no real “winners”.

However there is something in this film that won’t be for everyone…the main actors and celebrity cameos breaking the fourth wall.

One such cameo is Margot Robbie in a bubble bath telling us about…something that dealt with worthless stocks or something.

I was too distracted by the randomness of her being in a bubble bath. Sorry, I’m only human.

The breaking of the fourth wall will not be for everyone, but they discuss the economics of the “banking system” in a way that made someone like me, a novice in screwing over the American people.

At the end of The Big Short, people applauded and discussed the film in great detail.

When was the last time you left a film and people were discussing their lives in great detail? Not just about what they were going to do for dinner, but what they would have done differently with their lives.

If that’s not a sign of a film that worked, I don’t know what is. I left the film angry, confused, compelled, and best of all…entertained.

Go see this film if you want to be informed about something many people still know very little about. I know I was not as informed as I should’ve been and I’m ashamed I wasn’t more ahead of the curve.